A Beginning
by LaViaggiatrice
Summary: In which Mike Chang's weekend goes from perfrctly planned to serendipitously wonderful.
1. Chapter 1

It had been a long and grueling month for everyone, what with sectionals and the musical and school and practice and everything; so, when the long Columbus Day weekend rolled around and Rachel suggested meeting to go over lines, it was not surprising that everyone had their excuses lined up.

Kurt, while supportive of his boyfriend, refused to let another weekend go by without a little alone time for Klaine. It had almost come to a cat fight when Rachel suggested that Blaine and her practice at her house that weekend. Blaine, who after the whole Berry Party Fiasco had no desire to practice alone with Rachel for an extended period of time, tactfully stayed out of the argument.

The football players, despite desperately needing the practice laughed in her face, though arguably, she probably wasn't counting on them anyway. That left Mike. And to be honest, he had already planned out the whole weekend as a surprise for Tina.

She had been complaining recently that they never had enough time together, so he had made a point to move all other plans and clear his schedule just to spend with her. They were going to start with Breadstix and then have a twilight movie marathon. Then on Saturday, he was going to take her to Columbus for the day and then the ballet that night- one of his dance teachers was in this season's production of Swan Lake and managed to score him tickets. Then he planned on just staying in and cuddling her the rest of the weekend since his parents would be visiting his aunt and uncle. And really, with rain on the forecast, why would you want to do anything other than cuddle?

All of this would have been Mike's ideal weekend. If, on Thursday after practice he hadn't walked into the choir room to find Finn on top of Tina on top of the Piano. If, that jerk of a Frankenteen could keep his hands to himself. If, his harlot of an ex wasn't so cool about the whole thing- "Come on Mike it was just a Kiss!"

Mike Chang would have had a perfect weekend with his perfect girlfriend if she hadn't ripped his heart out and fed it to wild wildebeests. As it was, it was now Friday after school, Fintina, was all the gossip that filled the halls and all Mike could do was wallow in self depreciating despair while listening to Artie's half hearted attempts to make him feel better- "You really should have seen this coming, given her record..", and Puck's reassurances that he still 'had game' and if he so wished, could have any girl in school.

This was how Mike Chang found himself after WSS practice being pulled by the hand toward Rachel Berry's little red Ford Focus, and driven to the Berry residence and ushered inside, past the Daddies Berry and upstairs to the tiny diva's room. In retrospect, Mike would realize that it was Puck who told Rachel that Mike needed comforting and not Rachel's esp that prompted her to just take charge of his person. Before he knew what was happening, he was sipping a hot mug of tea and listening to her jabber on and on about Patti LuPone and Barbara, obviously trying to fill the air with noise.

What Mike didn't understand, was how composed Rachel was being, wasn't she dating Finn? He wasn't sure what was going on, but taking the chance to avoid a potential break down on Rachel's part, decided not to ask. If he was being honest with himself, he would admit that it was nice being taken care of. He spent most of his relationship with Tina being the strong protective one and not once was she ever there when he needed her. But Rachel, who was crazy and disliked and bullied and ambitious and beautiful and whose only real crime could be that she cares too much about absolutely everything, was here, taking care of him and not forcing him to practice, or dance or sing or even talk, and it was all just so much to take that all Mike could do was sit there and take it all in.

They stayed in her room, Rachel jabbering and flitting about, doing nothing while Mike sat on the bed deep in thought and drinking his tea, until her dads came up with a chinese take out menu and made them order and then invited Mike to stay the night-in the guest room of course, but he vaguely remembers Santana mentioning something about the Daddies Berry being the best at mending broken hearts-so he accepts and calls his parents and him and Rachel goof around online until their dinner arrives.

Somewhere between the dim sum- he had no idea that vegans could eat dim sum, or even that Rachel enjoyed it- and snuggling down on the couch to watch the Lion King, Mike Chang realized two things: one, that Rachel Berry was a great friend and two: she was absolutely beautiful. He had danced with her in Glee for two years and it must have been simply that he never really paid attention to her before, because when she curled into his side to watch the movie, he suddenly became aware of her small frame and perfect curves and how perfectly she fit in his arms.

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><p>I disclaim. Obviously I don't own Glee, because if I did Mike Chang would be the male lead!<p>

This is just something I came up with trying to brainstorm for another project. I am not sure if it is complete the way it is, or if it could be continued. I would really like feed back regardless. Please though, no flames for the slight Tina bashing, I love Tina and Finn and all of the charcters, but for the purposes of this story they had to both be evil.

Thanks!

Lexi


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A little while later, somewhere between a dream of him and Rachel dancing on a cloud in the rain and one of a Zombie apocalypse in Lima, Mike woke up and realized that he was still on the Berry couch wrapped in a blanket around Rachel's tiny frame. He sat up a little, not quite wanting to wake Rachel, and yet needing to stretch the pain out of his cramped body. As he was situating himself, Hiram Berry appeared in the door of the living room with a mug of coffee and a smirk on his face. Without a word, he handed the mug to Mike and disappeared around the corner into what Mike remembers to be the kitchen. He enjoys the coffee, noting that the soy milk brings out the nutty flavor of the roasted beans and thinks to himself that there must be something to the vegan thing if all of the food is really this good. He then also realizes that he has been staring at Rachel watching her sleep on his lap as his fingers run lightly through her hair, and despite the cute little smile of peacefulness on her face and the one that had worked its way onto Mike's, he thinks about how this could have been him and Tina and once again feels that squeezing in his chest at the thought of her and Finn.

He sighs louder than he means to and suddenly Rachel is awake and blinking the sleep from her eyes in a confusing manner. He can see the moment of remembrance on her face because in the next moment she is beaming a signature Rachel Berry smile at him, wishing him a good morning in a raspy gravelly tone that should be illegal for all that it turns Mike on. She then reaches for the coffee in Hiram's outstretched hand-seriously, how does he do it?- and takes a few moments to enjoy her coffee.

Leroy takes that moment to make an appearance and all four spend the next hour enjoying egg-free omelets and pancakes. Mike enjoys the morning of easy talk and the warmth of family bonding times that his own family had been lacking ever since his father got that promotion last year and spent most of his week at the office and the weekends schmoosing big wigs at the golf course. Around lunch time, Rachel drives Mike home and he spends the rest of his day fighting a growing attraction to Rachel, wallowing over the loss of Tina and playing Halo online with Puck and Artie and Sam. He ends up following his parents to his Aunt's house for lack of anything better to do and also because he knows that if left to his own devices, he'll end up eating all of the ice cream in the house drowning himself in a pool of self-pity. The only thing that gets him through the weekend of family togetherness and awkward questions about his role in the musical and if his 'plans' on attending Harvard are any different now that he is an artist, are the meaningless, yet precious texts Rachel has been sending him since he left her house. Telling him about her day, commenting on all of the people in her dance class and random thoughts he knows she is only sharing to keep his mind off of Tina. He manages to avoid one of his cousin's awkward questions about Tina and if that was who he had been texting the whole time.

By the time he gets back to Lima late monday night, thoughts of Tina and the subsequent ache in his chest had lessened and he went to sleep far less anxious about school the next day.


	3. Chapter 3

Overall, Mike is proud of himself for being able to walk down the hallway on Tuesday with his head held high and being able to smile at Tina as though the last year and a half hadn't happened. He even smirks to himself at the look on Finn's face when Rachel and him walk into Glee together and almost laughs out loud at the dumb look of confusion on his face when Rachel sits between Puck and Mike and seems as happy as ever. But, Mike Chang was raised to be the bigger person in every situation and he is sure that that includes not laughing at the guy who steals your girlfriend and then gets jealous when you start hanging around his ex.

The day gets even better when Rachel, Santana-yeah, he's still not sure how the two of them got along well enough to rehearse- Britney and Mercedes, sang their own version of Spice Up Your Life as a way to break the tension from Friday, and everyone minus Finntina and Quinn is dancing around the choir room ridiculously to the Spice Girls and just genuinely having a good time. It reminds Mike of the reasons he joined Glee and the whole team leaves the choir room together speaking with hilarious english accents.

At WSS rehearsal that day, Blaine and Kurt-who though not Tony, was asked to join the cast as head of the costume department-corner him while Rachel is walking through a dance number with the football players and they ask him how he's doing and if he needs anything and they offer their ears if he ever needs to talk and Mike doesn't know what it is about gay men but all of the ones he knows are really great at relationship advice. All in all, he returns home to his three hours of homework and a surprise pizza his mom bought them as her own way of trying to pick up his spirits after the Finntina disaster.

He spends the rest of the week in a similar manner, head held high while walking down the hallway, walking to class with any combination of Rachel, Artie, Puck or Santitany; singing and dancing through both Glee and WSS rehearsal and eating american comfort food with his mother as his father was in Atlanta that week at a conference. There was also the bonus that Rachel rarely left his side, and that any time the two weren't together, they were texting. He wasn't sure of when it happened, but somewhere in the middle of all of this, Mike found himself looking for Rachel in the crowded hallway and found himself getting unreasonably jealous when he saw anyone else looking at her.

It was Santana actually, who called him out on his crush a week later when Mercedes and Rachel were working on a duet in the auditorium as the rest of the glee club practiced dance moves Schue deemed acceptable for Sectionals. During a break, he had been watching Rachel practice her runs with what he suspected to be a big dopey grin on his face, when he heard Santana behind him asking how long it was going to be before she got to see what she called 'a whole lotta Cherry loving'. After sputtering and stammering at her he attempted to change to subject by demanding to know just when her and Rachel became close enough for Santana to even care. Santana smirked up at him in only true Satan fashion before declaring that her and 'B' had been friends since that day this summer when her car broke down halfway between Columbus and Lima at 10pm and Rachel was the only person who took the hour and half drive out to rescue the Latina cheer captain. She then told him to get a move on or else and stalked away to where Britney was trying to teach Kurt the proper way to pop his hips like Beyonce.

Needless to say, the conversation with Santana left him with a lot to think about and although he was willing to admit a growing attraction to the tenacious little diva, he wasn't quite ready to jump in head first.

All of these thoughts were blown out the window however, when he arrived at his dance lesson later that night to find a troupe from a local rival studio there to conspire on a super secret Flash Mob that would go down at the Columbus Thanksgiving Day parade in two months and Rachel standing at the front of the group talking to two male dancers from her class that were obviously more preoccupied checking her out than in the conversation they were having.

For about the seventh time that week alone, Mike felt the growling green monster inside of him and made his way over, not really knowing what he was going to do when he got there. Fortunately, he didn't have to do anything as Rachel, who lit up upon seeing him coming over, flung herself at him wrapping him in a hug. He really couldn't stop the smug smile from taking over as he watched her two dance friends stalk away.

They spent the rest of the joint rehearsal practicing for the Flash Mob, and dancing together. After rehearsal, they mutually decided to go out and get tea, after all there is nothing better than soothing tea after an invigorating work out. They laughed and talked about nothing and everything and later that night as Mike was finishing his homework, his mom asked him about his day and all he could talk about was Rachel. When her only response was to smirk at him knowingly, Mike realized that he was in way to deep to ignore it any longer. That night, as he lay in bed, Mike Change admitted to himself that he had a crush on Rachel Berry.


	4. Chapter 4

The Saturday following Mike's revelation, he found himself at the Puckerman household in the middle of a ridiculously intense Halo Marathon with Sam, Artie, Blaine and Kurt-who surprised everyone with his mad skills- when the interrogation started. If he was completely honest with himself, he would have seen it coming, after all, Puck is like Rachel's Jewish brother-from-another-mother and Kurt is her like twin or something and he's not quite sure what Blaine is to Rachel, but something went down and now they're friends so really, Mike should have had the sense to stay home that day.

But instead, he found himself in a room full of nosy good-for-nothing-teenage boys who as far as he was concerned were just as bad as girls. He pretended to tune them out for the first two hours, ignoring the snide side comments from Puck and Kurt and the awkward line of questioning Artie was throwing at him. He started to get a little annoyed when after their lunch, both Blaine and Sam cornered him in the kitchen with nothing more than suggestive eyebrows and questioning smirks. But he didn't actually snap until Puck and Sam started making bets on how long they thought it would take Finn to notice and Artie and Kurt argued over the appropriate couple name in the corner.

By nature, Mike Chang was a very quite person, preferring actions to words and dancing to anything else. But sitting in that room filled with his friends yammering at him like a gaggle of octogenarians, he lost it. He yelled at them in what was probably one of the longest rants of his life.

Yelled about how horrible Tina was for cheating on him, how much he kinda hated Finn for breaking the Bro Code, how much he was kinda already in love with Rachel and how he knew it would never happen. He yelled out all of the anger and rage he had been feeling. Left everything out for his friends to see, because really, if your buddies are all acting like a bunch of giggling school girls, then you definitely allowed to too. And when he was finished, Mike felt all of the bottled up stress he'd been harboring over the last few weeks lift off of him and when he finally tuned back into what was going on around him, he realized that Artie and Sam were clapping him on the back while Puck and Kurt smirked at each other knowingly from opposite sides of the couch.

The teens continued their marathon, this time making their comments about Rachel or about Cherry-as was the decided upon name apparently- as nonchalantly as possible while continuing to play as though Mike hadn't just spilled his whole heart on the floor. The only slightly tense moment being when Mike and Puck found themselves alone in the kitchen getting drinks when Puck told Mike, in a totally chill tone, that if he a) didn't get a move on and snap up Rachel soon he would fong him and b) if he hurt her in anyway, he would fong him. Mike left the kitchen not knowing how serious Puck was, but scared enough to try and do anything to avoid whatever the heck fonging entailed.

After dinner that night Mike was dancing around his room going over lines in his head and trying to choreograph a few songs for glee when his phone lit up with a text from Rachel. As he spent the rest of the night conversing with her through chat and emoticons, Mike vowed that he would not let the week close with out telling her, now all he needed was a plan and a song.

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><p>I know this is short and a little cheesy, but I really wanted to show all of the boys getting along, and I had to include Kurt, because well, he IS actually a ninja ...so I hope you like the chapter and I promise there will be actual cherry goodness to come. Does anyone have and songs they feel really embodies Cherry, or a song they think Mike could sing to Rachel? I haven't really found one, and I feel that a song has to be incorporated somehow.<p>

P.S. Thank you all so much for the reviews and the alerts! It makes my day to know that people are reading and enjoying my story!


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, Mike woke up to the sounds of New York Philharmonic playing a rousing rendition of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries-the only music the Chang parents saw fit for morning alarms, and Mike had to admit that it always scared him awake so it must be working- and went about his normal ablutions, mentally going through all of the ways he could possibly tell a girl how he feels.

He does think the answer is fairly obvious, it is Rachel Berry, the girl searching for a man to stand with in the spot light, so if he really wants her to get, he has to perform. The only thing stopping Mike is what to do and how to do it. He really doesn't want it to be some trashy Pop 40's or anything remotely tacky that Finn would come up with, and he is positive he doesn't want anything super intense like that tool Jesse St. Douche. He wants something totally original- minus actually writing an original song, hey 'My Cups' is the only original song anyone is ever getting out of Mike Chang if thats the reaction everyone is going to have.

As he finds himself at school that morning, walking up to his locker, he notices Rachel standing there waiting for him with a mega watt smile and a plate full of cookies. She hands them over and simply states that she was so full of energy over the weekend that she baked all of the different types of cookies she knew how, being glad that Puck's little sister needed them for a bake sale that week. When he gave her a thank you hug, he noticed her-the unflappable Rachel Berry- turn just the slightest bit pink before scurrying away. Mike could only watch with a somewhat smug look on his face.

His first two class whizzed by in a haze of cookies and daydreaming. He was now feeling more confident about everything, and was having issues trying to figure out something grand enough for the future Broadway star. It was as this thought crossed his mind, that Mike looked up and Blaine rearranging something in his locker, adjusting his bow tie and most likely waiting for Kurt. Two thoughts crossed Mike's mind at once a) that Klaine would be the perfect partner's in crime for his mission, and b) that that Slushy that hockey player is holding is going to ruin the bow tie.

So channeling his inner ninja- come on he's asian! He was BORN with the gene!- he crossed the hallway, closed Blaine's locker and managed to pull both of them out of the line of fire in a move so smooth and so fast that Jet Li and Jackie Chan both felt the torch pass by them. He glared angrily at the hockey jerk and was about to go all hulk on him when he realized that Puck, Sam, Karofsky, and Azimio were standing behind him. The Hockey player moved on and the little gang dispersed, Mike believing that the only reason Karofsky and Z helped was due to their belief that the football team had complete dominion over terrorizing the glee club, of course there was always that time last year after Championships when the hockey team slushied the football team. But then Mike realized that either way, Blaine was safe and he that they both had a free period next- perfect for scheming.

As Blaine calmed down from the terrifying two minutes in the hallway and Mike was lost in thought, the pair made their way towards the Library. Once seated far away from the crazy librarian and settled, Mike grinned mischievously at Blaine, explained the basics of his plan. Blaine was wearing an equally scheming smirk on his face when Mike finished and both of them nearly upturned the table when Kurt clapped his hands together behind them and started planning at a mile a minute. Mike was going to have to check into Kurt's family tree, because he's sure that somewhere Kurt must be asian since he seems to have the ninja gene too. Mike tunes back in to see the young couple grinning at each other as if they just found a huge hidden trove of chocolate and deciding that he must have missed something, Mike asked what was going on. Which was when Kurt and Blaine turned to him and uttered one word together "Disney." Mike couldn't help the smile on his face.

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><p>Dun DUN DUNNNNN!<p>

Also, we are just going to ignore 'Bella Notte' from the season finale-while excellent, I just don't want Finn to get the credit of serenading her with Disney. Ans obviously I kep Trouty Mouth around because who doesn't like him anyway? Enjoy and Review!


	6. Chapter 6

The trio spent the rest of the afternoon, meaning missing lunch and health sciences, planning and brain storming. Mike smiled to himself halfway through when Kurt and Blaine were arguing over song choice. They didn't seem to realize how perfect they were for each other. Blaine was arguing for a sweet sappy over the top song that, if he was honest with himself, he wasn't totally ready for. Kurt seemed to think that a big production was better. And now they sat arguing between "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (Blaine) and "Kiss the Girl" (Kurt), as if they weren't talking about Mike's confession to Rachel, as if Mike wasn't even there, as if this was the sort of argument the two of them had all of the time. Watching them, Mike sighed loudly thinking how he hope the one day he could have a relationship as solid as the one the two of them had, preferably with one Tiny Diva. They stopped talking then and looked at him.

"Oh I'm sorry Mike! I forgot where I was for a moment, which song do you like?" Kurt asked.

"Oh, um...well no offense, I like both of your choices, but I was thinking something more fitting for the two of us." And with that, Mike told the two boyfriends his idea and the trio started to plan.

Excited about the song choice, they made their way to Glee where Shue immediately split them up into Boys V. Girls again and the girls left to brainstorm in the auditorium, with the implicit instructions to try and Rachel to go over to Santana's house for a sleepover after school so that Mike could do his song. As much as Mike would have loved for his confession to be private, he realized that the Glee family, minus Finn and Tina-who were being kept in the dark and not invited to participate- was now heavily invested in the scheme. The boys, after sending Finn to 7/11 for a slurpee run, began practicing.

The next hour was spent rehearsing, the boys, back up for Mike's song, and the girls picking Britney's song after a long debate. As the school day drew to a close and after their glee numbers were perfected, the girls minus Tina, packed into Santana's And Rachel's cars and drove to the Latina's house. So far, the only instructions the girls had been given were to keep Rachel busy enough to not notice the scheming and yet free enough to accept a random appearance by the boys. The boys meanwhile, were to wait a few hours- meaning a snack break at the Puckerman's,and then drive over to Santana's for an impromptu performance, and the most nerve racking moment of Mike's young life.

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><p>AN: *peeks from over a rock and looks around, waves white flag then gets up to write* SOOOOOOOOO SOOORRRYYYYY I swore when I undertook writing that I would NEVER do this to readers, but alas, college is busy. But look how lucky you are, two chapters! Enjoy! Feedback would make my week better! And did everyone catch the Episode? OMG! Thats all I'll say!<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

The girls were having a great time enjoying themselves and being girly. The Cheerios were giving Rachel and Mercedes makeovers and all of the girls were jumping around singing at the top of their lungs. The amusing part was that singing was the only way to get Rachel to stop talking about Mike. She adamantly refused to admit liking him, but would not stop talking about him for anything. The rest of the girls allowed it for now, thinking it cute that the two were so oblivious to the other's feelings and glad that it would be resolved by the end of the night. Quinn and Santana having the time of their lives dressing Rachel in real clothes for once while mercedes braided Britney's hair. All in all, it was great to just revel in these moments and bonding, outside of school, away from the mess of social hierarchy and they did mourn the loss of Tina to their group and hoped that all would be resolved soon enough.

At 5:30 on the dot, the doorbell rang and without waiting, the boys piled into the house crashing on the couch and ruining the girlie mood. The girls, who had been in the middle of a Destiny's Child number continued dancing around the boys nonplussed by the intrusion.

Their song ended with a rousing round of applause from the boys. Which was when Quinn, with a twinkling of mischief in her eyes announced that now that the boys had so unceremoniously gate-crashed, that they could perform next. Mike shot her a look of pure horror and he would remember this blunt almost mocking approach the next time she asked for a favor.

As the girls goaded the boys into song, Puck walked up to the elaborate sound system in the corner and slid a cd into it. Without anymore ado, Mike started singing. Looking directly at Rachel, without breaking eye contact and dancing all around her, he lead the boys through a brilliant rendition of 'A Girl Worth Fighting For' and ended on his knee in front of her.

"Rachel, I realize that this is soon, but I can't get you outta my mind, please come to dinner with me tomorrow?" Mike barely managed to get out without stammering. Meanwhile Rachel, who had just sat there beaming at him, threw herself into his arms to the sounds of whooping from the others all around them.

With Rachel in his arms and his friends all around him, Mike realized that Senior Year wasn't an end, but merely a beginning.

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><p>AN: And there you have it folks! The ending! DA TA! (extra brownie point if you got that refrence!) So I realise that this was a short and abrubt ending, but I am planning on two more fics, the same one, from Rachel's POV and a sequel in a different style, maybe one with actual dialogue? Any suggestions? SO I hope you all enjoy! And a note to all Gleeks in NZ and the land of OZ, Today's episode was GREAT! Also, HI! I really miss it down there!<p> 


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